


Five Times Warren Lied, and One Time He Told the Truth

by queenitsy



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: 5 Things, Crush, Dysfunctional Family, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-19
Updated: 2009-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 06:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenitsy/pseuds/queenitsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's always about Warren's father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Warren Lied, and One Time He Told the Truth

_5._

Warren Battle is six years old. It's the middle of the night, and his father shakes him awake. He sits up, confused. His father sits on the edge of his bed, but doesn't turn on the light. Just holds out a hand that glows like magic.

"Do you like the stories I tell you?" he asks, smiling.

Warren nods sleepily. His father tells great stories -- stories about a superhero named Baron Battle who saves the world and everyone is so grateful they make him emperor, which is sort of like being a king, but even better. And it means that Emperor Battle's son is a prince, and he gets to go off and have his own adventures, too, and maybe he'll even have superpowers like his daddy's someday.

"I need to go away for awhile," his dad says. "But I promise I'll come back and tell you more stories as soon as I can. If you do one thing for me. It's a very little thing."

"What?" Warren asks, sure that he can do it. It doesn't have to be little. If his dad asks him to, he can do _anything_.

"I need you to drink this." His father hands him a glass. It looks almost like Kool-Aid, which he got to drink at school once and it was great, even though his mom says it's too sugary and she never lets him have any at home.

Warren takes the glass. He downs a few gulps. It tastes gross, like medicine, not Kool-Aid after all.

"Just finish it up," his father urges him. "You can do that for me, right, Warren?"

Warren drinks the rest.

His father takes the glass back and tousles Warren's hair. He leans down and kisses Warren's forehead. "One more thing," he says. "Promise me one more thing."

"What, Daddy?"

"Don't tell your mom about this." His father sounds nervous. "Even if she asks you, okay? Don't tell her I was here. It's... our little secret, okay, Warren?"

Warren doesn't like the idea of not telling his mom something, and his stomach suddenly hurts really badly and he feels like he might throw up. He looks up at his dad and his dad suddenly looks really weird, blurry, and Warren feels hot all over.

"Do you promise me, Warren?"

Warren manages to say, "Yes," before he falls asleep again, sweating in his sheets.

For four days, Warren is sick -- very sick. His mother stays with him and cries and cries. And when Warren finally is able to stay awake for long enough, she asks if he saw his father before he got sick, if his father said anything or did anything or gave him anything to eat or drink.

Warren says no. He doesn't like saying it, though. It feels heavy in his stomach and he worries he might throw up again, but he doesn't. But he can't tell his mom, he can't. He promised.

He asks where his dad is. Usually when he's sick, his mother makes it all better like magic, but for some reason this time she can't just fix it, and he wants his dad to come tell him a story.

But his mom just cries. And his father never comes home.

_4._

Warren Peace is 12, his voice is changing, and he's finally decided that even if his mother thinks he's too young, he's ready to know what his father really did.

Keeping secrets from his mother isn't such a big deal now, especially since he's on his own so much. He's supposed to go straight from school to his Aunt Mei's restaurant, where he'll sit in the back and do homework or read or something, but it's always boring and she's too busy to notice if he's late, anyway. So he stops at the library and looks up his father.

There are two books about him. One is written by a criminal psychologist, trying to figure out what makes villains tick. The other is titled _The Day the Sun Went Out_, and the cover is a collage of newspaper headlines and photos from what everyone calls the Dark Days -- the week without sunlight, when Barron Battle held the world hostage and threatened to let it wither and die. The week he murdered five of the world's most powerful superheroes, until finally the Commander defeated him.

Warren reads the book cover to cover, and he feels sick inside and hot under his skin.

He stares at the photos, at the monster who almost destroyed the world, who he remembers tucking him every night. He memorizes every detail of the two-page photo spread in the center of the book, which ran on the front page of Maxville's paper the day he was defeated. It's Baron Battle and the Commander. Battle is splayed on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. The Commander has one boot planted on Battle's chest and is smiling for the camera.

Warren smells smoke when he shoves the book back on to the shelf, but he doesn't know where it's coming from.

Two days later, he notices a kid named Danny at school. It's not the first time he's noticed Danny, actually. Danny is a year ahead of him, he's a football star, and all the girls are in love with him. He's got blond hair and blue eyes and _dimples_, or so girls keep saying.

It happens in the cafeteria. Warren is about to sit down and eat his bag lunch, when he hears someone wail, "My _retainer!_" He looks up and sees some nerdy kid scrambling for the trashcan, while Danny stands there and laughs.

Warren doesn't know if Danny threw the kid's retainer in the trash, or if he's just laughing at someone else's bad luck. But when everyone else starts laughing too, Danny just stands there and smirks. Warren sees that smug look and his body moves without his permission. And for a split second he _does_ see Danny's dimples. Right as his fist lands in Danny's face.

Warren's skin feels hot again. He barely sees anything, and all the screaming is just so much noise. Danny tries to shove Warren off, but Warren has him pinned on the floor, his arms feel _really hot_ now, and his knuckles are bleeding. A teacher grabs him and tries to pull him off --

\-- and everything bursts into flame.

Warren passes out.

When he comes to, his mom is there. She's calm and promises him that it's okay, no one is hurt badly, and he'll change schools to somewhere no one knows him. She'll help him learn to control his power, so he'll never accidentally hurt anyone again.

She's so gentle and soothing. Warren knows that's her superpower, that she can heal almost anything and she can make anyone feel at peace. But he needs it, he does, because he can't stop picturing his teacher's terrified expression.

When he's finally lying in bed, too exhausted to move, she asks him, "Why did you hit that boy, honey?"

He remembers the photograph in the book, and Danny's smirk. But he says, "I don't know. I just did."

His mom gives him a final dose of her calming power before he falls asleep, so he won't have nightmares. Instead of fire, he dreams of dimples.

He wakes up breathing hard, his body warm. He's terrified.

_3._

Warren is 16 and sullen.

His mother is fed up. Her arms are crossed over her chest. "Just tell me _why,_" she demands. "After you've worked so hard for all these years -- why now? Why him?"

Warren thinks about Will Stronghold and how everyone doted on him even when they thought he was just a sidekick with no powers at all. It'll be a thousands times worse now that he's got his dad's super strength.

"Stronghold had it coming."

His mother stares at him for a long time. Finally, she asks, "Is this about your father?"

"_No._"

_2._

Warren is 16, and he has friends for the first time in his life. Stronghold actually turned out to be a good guy, even if he is prone to doing stupid things. Layla is possibly the kindest, most patient person Warren's ever met (except maybe his mom). Zach is hilarious, though usually unintentionally; Ethan always gives in and helps Warren with his homework, mostly by doing it for him.

And Magenta...

Magenta is made of pure evil. Usually Warren enjoys that about her. Right now, not so much.

"It's not like I'm asking you to _go_ to the spring formal," Magenta says. "I have a date, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm just asking _if_ you're going."

"And I'm telling you, no I'm not," Warren says.

Magenta gives him one of her patented Magenta Looks, which says much louder than words that she is not at all impressed with him. Warren tries to ignore it. He _hates_ Magenta Looks.

"Lots of people go to school dances without dates," she finally says.

"And that is relevant to me _how?_"

"Just saying."

"Well, don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't -- don't _say things_! Jeeze." He glowers.

Too bad glowering doesn't work on people made of pure evil.

"I'll say what I want," she snaps. "Like that you went to homecoming with Layla -- "

"To make Stronghold jealous -- "

"-- even though you knew Will wouldn't be there. You are so not fooling _anyone,_ Warren."

For a second he tastes adrenaline, feels the tingle of heat in his hands. He clenches a fist and puts it out. Magenta is pure evil, but she's also his friend, and friends don't set other friends on fire, no matter how annoying they are.

"I'm not fooling anyone," he repeats, "because I'm not hiding anything."

She gives him a Magenta Look until he's ready to break down and admit that she's right. He doesn't want to see Layla and Will at the dance. But she's dead wrong about why. He doesn't have a crush on Layla. Not exactly. And he also doesn't have a crush on Will, for he record. It's just... the two of them.

It's so fucked up. Warren wants... that. Not a relationship, or a girlfriend, or a boyfriend. He wants _them_.

But that's not how things work, and he knows it.

"Sure," Magenta says. "You're not hiding anything at all, Warren."

Weird. He's usually a better liar than that. It must be the pure evil thing.

_1._

Warren is 18 and terrified, not that he'd admit that aloud. It's the first time he's seen his father since he was six, but his father wrote him a letter and asked him to come. It arrived on Warren's birthday. And because Warren can be a real idiot sometimes, here he is.

His father looks surprised, and far too pleased, to see him. So Warren opens with what he hopes is a scathing remark: "I'm really curious, Dad, when you decide to poison your six-year-old son, how do you narrow down your options?"

"Warren -- "

"Has to be something that'll keep the family healer too busy to stop you from taking over the world. Has to be slow acting enough that your kid won't die too quickly." He ticks it off on his fingers. "And let's round it out by making sure it taste as nasty as possible, right? Something like that?"

But his father says, "It was the only way I could be sure you'd both be safe."

"_Safe?_ Feeding me something so dangerous even Mom couldn't heal me was _safe?_"

"It kept you both away from the carnage. I could never have hurt your mother, and she _would_ have tried to stop me."

"Newsflash, asshole: you, trying to take over the world? Hurt Mom."

"It wasn't supposed to turn out that way. It wasn't about ruling the world. It was about -- about saving it. So many bad things happen, but if only one person, one sane leader could rule _everything_ \-- "

"Emphasis on _sane,_" Warren interrupts. "Which you're not."

His father narrows his eyes. But says, "Sane enough to warn you."

Warren gives his father the closest thing he can manage to a Magenta Look.

"I know you're friends with Will Stronghold."

"Yes," Warren says. "I am."

"And that doesn't seem... strange to you? So very convenient for the righteous Commander. He defeats me, gets you under his thumb -- "

"Will isn't part of -- "

"Isn't he? You know they don't trust you. No one does. Like it or not, you _are_ too much like me. Same power. Same temper. We even _look_ alike. So Stronghold tells his son to befriend you, keep an eye on you -- "

"No." Warren clenches a fist.

"No? Think about it, son -- "

"I don't have to." Warren stands. "I don't have to, because you know what? I'm not a kid. I'm not stupid. And there's no way I'd ever doubt Will and believe _you_. So I'm out of here."

"Wait!"

Warren pauses, almost against his will.

"It doesn't have to end like this, Warren. It was never supposed to. Those stories I used to tell -- I was going to make them _true_. I did it all for you, son, because I _love_ you. Don't you remember the stories?"

Warren turns around and looks his father in the eye.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he says.

And he leaves.

_0._

Warren can't get what his father said out of his head. How alike they are. How no one trusts him. How everything his father did was for him -- because of him. He gets off the bus and trudges towards home, every step feeling like lead.

Will and Layla are both sitting on his stoop when he gets home. He doesn't even have to say anything before they're both up, and Layla's arms are around his shoulders. He relaxes into her for just a second, but Will is standing right there, and he doesn't want Will to think...

"You look pretty beat up," Will says.

Warren shrugs and pulls out of Layla's grip. Will gives him a pat on the back, and Layla takes his arm and pulls him down to the stoop.

"Are you okay?" she asks, hushed.

_I did it all for you, son._ Warren shakes his head wordlessly.

"You want to talk about it?" she offers. She's leaning against him, both of her arms wrapped around his left arm. Will is at his other side, shoulder-to-shoulder. Maybe he doesn't mind that his girlfriend is so touchy-feely. Probably he's just used to it.

"No," Warren says.

They sit there silently. Warren feels warm, but pleasant-warm, sandwiched between them. He wonders if they know that, if this is their idea of pity. And that's one thing he's never wanted. He snatches his arm away from Layla, but can't bring himself to stand up or anything.

"Okaaaaay," Will says finally. "Well, uh, we're here if you, you know... change your mind or something."

"What do you care, anyway?" he demands, trying to will his father's voice out of his head. _Sane enough to warn you._

"Warren," Will says. Just that. But he sounds sort of... hurt.

Warren actually hangs his head a little. He hates that he knows exactly what his father was doing, making him question his closest friend, because he hates that he thinks like his father, even a little bit.

"Shit," he mumbles. "Will..."

Will nudges him with his shoulder. "No big," he says lightly, and stands. He offers Layla a hand up and she takes it, and Warren feels cold without them. Will and Layla hold a very short, silent conference, and then Will says, "So how about food? Layla and I were going to go out for dinner, if you want to come. What do you say?"

Warren looks up at Will and Layla, who are both smiling at him. And even though his first instinct is to say no, to go brood alone inside after cracking a joke about being a third wheel, he doesn't.

It isn't what he sees in them that changes Warren's mind. It's what he doesn't see. No fear. No mistrust. No blame.

So he admits, "Actually, I'd... really like that. To go. With the two of you." It's the most he's ever said aloud about that... situation, about what he feels for the two of them. What he wants.

Probably they don't know what he means. But maybe they do.

Will's smile never wavers. He offers Warren a hand and pulls him to his feet like he weighs nothing. Layla puts a hand on the small of Warren's back to nudge him towards the sidewalk. And Warren lets out a deep breath.

Warren knows that if there is anyone in the world who can handle the truth, it's these two. Someday, when he's ready to talk about his father, they'll listen. But he doesn't want to right now. Instead, he walks sandwiched between them, comfortable with the two people who know him best in the whole world.

And for the first time in a long time, Warren feels at peace.


End file.
